Only 6% of Britain's airline pilots are women. And almost every UK airline offers the absolute statutory minimum maternity pay provision. This is despite the fact that pilots have to repay their training loans – amounting to over £100,000 in many cases – even when on maternity leave. That means that women pilots on maternity leave lose up to 90% of their earnings and end up spending more money on their training loan repayments than they bring in in maternity pay – let alone anything left over for living costs. We need to make the piloting job more family friendly and attractive to women if we want to increase the number of women applying to become pilots. Many of the hardships associated with an 80-90% reduction in pay are obvious, particularly those which coincide with the extra expenditure involved in preparing for a new baby. Many women pilots are the highest earners within their families – the traditional ‘breadwinner’ role. Some are single parent families. Increasingly, women pilots are also servicing debt from the costs of higher education and flight training, along with saving for the costs of buying a first house. Women pilots have told us : “The current maternity package does not encourage women into aviation and in my case is stopping me from having the freedom to start a family when I am ready.” “The statutory maternity provision is less than half my loan repayment.” “Ultimately we found ourselves debating whether it would be better to keep the baby and move out of the home we have just settled in to, or have an abortion and spend a few years figuring out a financial plan”

Japhet Moyo, General Secretary of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has been arrested. The trade union leader’s arrest follows the violent repression of protests, which saw police open live-round fire on civilians, resulting in the death of 12 people and the reported imprisonment of over 200. After opening fire on its own people, the police are now targeting trade unionists with arrests, intimidation and violence. The world is watching, and President Emmerson Mnangagwa needs to take immediate steps to restore a climate free of violence and fear. The protests – centred on a three day ‘stay away’ from work called by the ZCTU - were a response to massive price hikes for essential goods and services after the government unilaterally imposed a 150% increase in the cost of fuel. Read the ITUC’s letter to President Mnangagwa: www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/20190121_ituc_protest_letter_following_arrest_zctu_gs_en.pdf

The Major Motion Picture Agreement (MMPA) between PACT and BECTU came into effect in April 2018. This agreement holds many benefits for our members, however since its implementation, many junior grades are now finding themselves significantly financially worse off as a result. Previously the trainees, assistants and runners were paid a customary £35 (non-camera) and £50 (camera) for their overtime. Under the new agreement, these thresholds have been stripped back reducing annual income for many. The long-term consequences threaten a reduction in the diversity of the industry, and a loss of skilled people coming into the industry. Talks between BECTU and PACT will reopen later this month and we hope to reinstate the overtime floor. For clarity: anything we negotiate on behalf of our junior grade members will not be to the detriment of the wider membership. By signing this petition, you are supporting BECTU by demonstrating to PACT that this is a widely felt issue. Please sign and share with your colleagues of all departments and grades For more information on the issue read the news story https://www.bectu.org.uk/news/2875 For the full Major Motion Picture Agreement visit https://www.bectu.org.uk/advice-resources/agreements/pact-major-motion-picture

Every worker should have the right to a contract that guarantees the hours they work and the conditions they need for a decent working life. Too often zero-hours contracts are being used to exploit workers. Hours are never guaranteed, making financial planning impossible and anxiety inevitable. If ministers are serious about building a country that works for everyone, they must act now to ensure every worker gets fair pay, decent rights and a voice at work.

Quality journalism is at the heart of a healthy democracy. It helps to keep people informed, combat fake news and holds those in power to account. Yet the local media industry is in crisis. Newsquest is the second largest owner of regional and local newspapers in the UK and the company dominates the media industry in Cumbria. Newsquest bought a series of newspaper titles in Cumbria earlier this year and since then the effect on local newsrooms has been detrimental and dramatic. The company has driven away experienced local journalists, whose professionalism, ethics and local standing has benefited the company - and the local community - enormously. Collectively, their departure represents a catastrophic loss of experience and knowledge. NUJ members working for the Carlisle News and Star, the Cumberland News, the Workington Times and Star and the Whitehaven News newspapers took strike action on Thursday 20 December and need your support in their continuing campaign. Please support the staff at Newsquest's Cumbrian papers and send a message to Managing Director Johnathan Lee.

Premium pay rates offer a small compensation for employees spending Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day at work. Two years ago staff at TGI Friday’s restaurants across the U.K. were forced into signing contracts that took away their right to be paid time-and-a-half for working over the Christmas and New Year period. While many people spend this time at home with family and friends, workers at restaurants like TGI Friday's have to work. Workers were told there was no option but to sign the updated contract and that they would not be allowed to work again until they had. Some reported being told to sign the new contract halfway through a busy shift without being informed what it was they were signing away. TGI Friday's workers are often made to survive on minimum wage. Compensation for the time spent away from our family and friends over the festive season is the least a big profitable company like TGI Friday's can do.

The University of Sheffield has been a global leader in East Asian Studies since its inception as the national centre for modern Japanese Studies in 1963. Korean Studies was introduced in 1979 and maintained as a small, specialist unit until the boom in interest in Korea over the last decade has seen an explosion in student and research interest. Chinese Studies also has a multi-decade history of excellence in teaching and research at Sheffield. And increasing numbers of our staff work across linguistic and other divisions to consider relations across and beyond the region. Increased student numbers, particularly at postgraduate level, along with growth in research income has also seen a slow, but persistent, growth in staffing. This has begun to compensate for long standing inequalities in staff-student ratios that saw EAS having the lowest staffing levels per student in the university for many years. We now have a team of about fifty academic, teaching and research staff working across the region and covering many major disciplines from the humanities and social sciences, including political economy, literature, history, international relations, anthropology, sociology, language pedagogy and film and media studies. We also have a wide range of partners from industry to government to the arts and community sectors. This makes Sheffield the largest and most diverse concentration of East Asia expertise in the UK, and one of the most significant in Europe.  That diversity also provides a unique platform for investment and growth to sustain our position as one of the major centres of East Asia expertise globally, should university leaders see the unique potential of Sheffield’s strengths. Learning about East Asia has merits on its own terms - greater cultural competency, deepening knowledge of rich and diverse cultures and societies and so on - but is also a key priority for governments of all stripes. As the University of Sheffield was finalising plans to reduce capacity, the UK Prime Minister was announcing plans to grow the UK's capacity in the Indo-Pacific. This follows on increased funding to build China capacity across the UK, and live plans to renew policy in relation to various countries of East Asia, which Sheffield staff have and will continue to inform. Reducing capacity now will make Sheffield less able to play the leading role it has played for many years in important areas of life that are deeply important to British society - from politics to culture.  In the School of East Asian Studies, we taught a record 500 masters' students in the academic year 2023-24 and have nearly 300 masters' students enrolled on degrees and modules in the current year. Many of these are international students. Sheffield is proud of its place as home of the #weareinternational campaign and the university must deliver on this message in the content of its scholarship as well as in student experience. We believe ​t​hat radical reductions in capacity ​c​reate significant ​r​isks to Sheffield's world leading reputation in East Asian Studies, our deep and meaningful partnerships in the region and beyond, and the future of East Asia expertise in the UK​.​ In a world that is potentially both more connected and more uncertain, we must cherish the area expertise that allows us to meet global challenges.  ​I​n this difficult year for universities across the UK, we must not lose sight of our core mission: to understand the world better, and to communicate that understanding. We need ​t​o recognise that the future success of the University of Sheffield relies on a strong East Asian Studies, and that East Asian Studies globally needs a strong University of Sheffield.

We believe staff parking should be free for those who are contractually required to use their car for work such as social workers, and free for those who require parking nearby as a reasonable adjustment due to a disability.  It is also deeply unfair that those on low incomes are  having to pay the same as Directors and the Chief Executive. Staff are being forced to buy a £300 a year flexi permit, or pay £6 per day, when executives on over £100,000 a year will be paying much less of a percentage of their income.  Staff are being banned for 30 days without appeal if they have not purchased a ticket.  As a result staff that can't afford to pay are having to park on residential streets, which is having a detrimental impact on residents in Dorchester.  Councillors are able to park for free in all Council owned car parks when undertaking Council business, this is right but it should apply to employees of the Council too.   Staff morale is at an all time low and workplace stress at an all time high. This is an unfair system that needs to be reconsidered by Dorset Council.

Outsourcing has a negative effect on services, not only do staff suffer but patients as well.

It's important that all vulnerable people receive the essential care they are entitled to .  It's important to show that carers and healthcare professionals matter too . Finding lawful parking spaces whilst delivering essential care isn't easy at times . It's important that carers and healthcare professionals can always park their cars whilst delivering essential care to the vulnerable people nationwide. Carers and healthcare professionals being fined is not helping with recruitment, there's already staffing shortage in the care sector. Carers and healthcare professionals are already amongst the lowest paid . As carers and healthcare professionals we put the vulnerable first even if no lawful parking space exists and this then leads to an expensive fine doesn't seem fair . Devon county council give their healthcare professionals and carers free parking permits I'm asking for this to be available to all carers and healthcare professionals please.

Your support will make a difference in our efforts to achieve union recognition. The trade union movement is only as strong as the people who support it, and that’s why it is so essential that you show your support for NDCS staff at this critical moment. Together, we can get Unison recognised at NDCS.

Bank staff at RDaSH have resisted the move to NHSP for sometime, as opposed to other trusts who have gradually moved onto NHSP over the past few years. Staff forced onto NHSP contracts are now seeing their rights eroded. NHSP have not been awarded the lump sum and members have no way of challenging this. WHY? Because NHSP do not negotiate with trade unions! NHSP is preferred by trusts as it saves the them money, it does this by paying less to the bank staff. So, if you want to do any overtime you will be forced to sign onto NHSP and then get paid less than you would get for your substantive post. Imagine working on bank alongside a colleague on a substantive post, doing the same job but being paid less! Pay and conditions are protected by keeping the bank contracts with RDaSH, plain and simple! We need to fight and say no NSHP!